About Sterling Training

A professional career which started in retail with companies such as John Lewis led to a variety of senior leadership and marketing roles in both the private and public sector. Now, as Managing Director of Sterling Training Ltd, she delights in working closely with strategic and operational managers to help them realise their business and training goals.

Emma leads a team with a real passion for developing people to make the most of their skills, take ownership of and exude confidence in their roles and when she can, she still delivers training.  An enthusiastic, imaginative and outgoing trainer, Emma particularly enjoys working with managers and leaders at all levels to get the very best from themselves and their staff.

Richenda devised and drives Sterling’s learner-centred approach, hand-picking and developing our team of trainers to deliver to our values. She has trained business leaders, clinical staff, teachers and trainers all around the world. Her work often focuses on Sterling’s Armed Services clients both at home and abroad.

A highly qualified Learning and Development professional, Richenda is always grasping opportunities to develop her own skills. Her qualifications range from a clinical degree in Speech & Language Therapy (SLT), to an HR qualification from CIPD, as well as a PGCE, several English Language Teaching qualifications and a Masters in Education Studies. She is also a qualified Neurolanguage Coach and Global DISC profiler and coach and thanks to her extensive experience of living and working abroad, she has become the cultural guru of the team.

Mike has over 25 years’ experience in language education, international training, and cross-cultural communication in a variety of locations across the globe.

Mike’s journey began in international logistics in the automotive industry in Southampton, before he relocated to the Far East. Here he held pivotal roles with a variety of engineering companies before expanding his range of teaching and training skills with positions in the UK and Latin America, delivering business English, cultural awareness, presentation skills and international relations.

Using our learner-centred style, Mike uses his enthusiasm and boundless energy to motivate our international defence sector clients, preparing them for training in fields such as finance, logistics and aviation engineering. He also works with our Armed Services clients in the UK, where his courses centre on enhancing cultural and communicative competence in the international training room.

With a background spanning marketing, publishing and events management, Ingrid brings a wealth of experience in organisation, communication and delivering exceptional customer service. Her attention to detail, calm approach and ability to juggle multiple priorities make her a perfect fit for Sterling Training.

As Course Co-ordinator, Ingrid helps ensure every aspect of the learner journey runs smoothly, from managing bookings and supporting delegates to liaising with trainers and clients. Alongside coordinating courses, she manages Sterling’s day-to-day marketing activities, creating engaging content, maintaining the websites, supporting marketing campaigns and continually improving the systems and processes that help keep the business running efficiently. Passionate about helping people succeed, Ingrid is committed to providing an outstanding experience for every client and learner who chooses Sterling Training.

James is a former British Army officer with 40 years of leadership experience, having led military, civilian and multinational teams across the UK and internationally. His extensive career has seen him work with around 40 partner nations, giving him a unique breadth of leadership, management and communication experience that he now brings to Sterling Training.

Passionate about developing people and building high-performing teams, James specialises in leadership, management, communication, planning and team development. His engaging, learner-centred approach encourages participation, challenges delegates to think differently and ensures every session is practical, relevant and enjoyable. Whether working with corporate or military organisations, James takes great pride in helping individuals and teams develop the confidence and skills to perform at their very best.

Jono has worked as a trainer and facilitator across the UK, Europe and the Middle East, and helps our customers to drive change and enhance individual and team performance. He prides himself on his ability to connect with delegates in a way that makes his sessions personal and relevant. Jono’s open, honest and challenging approach encourages dialogue and participation, and he works hard to ensure all delegates’ needs are met during training.

Jono’s extensive experience in the communications industry has given him a real depth of practical business, sales and management knowledge and experience, which he brings to his sessions. Management and leadership skills, effective communication and sales enablement, are the areas Jono relishes and he takes great pride in seeing the growth and development of those in his care.

As a communications, presentations and behavioural specialist, Mary has trained and coached employees around the world in a variety of roles up to and including senior executives.

Specialising in presentation and leadership skills, Mary also gets excited about developing clients’ customer experience, improving communication skills, and helping staff to maximise their impact, strengthen their ability to influence, enhance their personal credibility and present powerful and impactful presentations. A natural in the learner-centred training space, Mary has a passion for listening, and for helping others and has an extensive toolkit of practical tools, and techniques and concepts that our learners find invaluable in helping them work their way to their own conclusion.

Phil’s key role as Principal Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy, specialised in surface and anti-submarine warfare. He was responsible for the management and programming of 14 ships employed from Gibraltar to Finland in both training and operations.

After managing operations in Kosovo (Army and Royal Marines) and Iraqi No Fly Zones (RAF), Phil qualified as a teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages, and having been trained to deliver in our learner-centred style brings a huge amount of expertise to the team. Phil works closely and enthusiastically with our clients designing and delivering military terminology, leadership, project management as well as tactical and operational training.

Shiva Venkateswaran is an experienced leadership trainer, executive coach and facilitator with more than 25 years of international business experience across the UK, India, Qatar and the UAE. Having held senior leadership roles with global organisations, he brings practical insight into the challenges of leading people, driving performance and delivering organisational change.

Shiva specialises in developing leaders and managers through engaging, highly interactive workshops that combine real world experience with practical tools participants can apply immediately. He is passionate about creating psychologically safe learning environments where people feel confident to contribute, practise new skills and grow. Alongside his training, Shiva is a certified executive coach who enjoys helping individuals and organisations develop confident leaders, build high performing teams and create lasting positive change.

Claire is officially our Microsoft Marvel! Having worked with Microsoft products since before the release of Windows, she ran a presentation centre for a US investment bank, where she trained her own team members. She trains us here at Sterling too!

Claire has delivered Microsoft training for around 30 years and particularly loves to use simple language and share skills, techniques and super tips to help people to work more effectively with Word or Excel on a daily basis.  Her passion is to help save their precious time and remove some of the mystery and the many frustrations brought about by software, so that our delegates can focus on improving their efficiency and effectiveness.

After qualifying in catering management, Jennifer worked for large catering companies as a manager before undertaking the refurbishment of a country pub, adding a 36-seat restaurant and a large function room, which she ran successfully for over a decade. At the end of the lease Jennifer discovered a passion for training, consultancy and auditing in food safety and health and safety, leading to her delivering Apprenticeships and NVQ qualifications in a range of hospitality, management and business administration.

With over 30 years of experience in training and management, Jennifer facilitates training for our specialist and generalist military personnel as well as working with those clients who need support in Lean management, preparing policies and procedures, food hygiene, risk assessment, health and safety, quality assurance and auditing.

Annie has 20 years’ experience as a teacher specialising in Learning Support, Challenging Behaviour and Alternative Curriculums. She balances a career in teaching with one in Military Intelligence, having been an Army Reservist since 2013 and contributed to several overseas as well as UK based operations.

Annie now enjoys combining her skills and expertise by delivering bespoke technical language or specialist military training to our civilian and military clients, either in the UK or overseas. Demonstrating cultural awareness and applying emotional intelligence would definitely feature in Annie’s trainer-survival-skills manual, as would finding a humorous side to everything!

Lynn is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant (CIPFA) who worked within a purely finance environment for 10 years, then moved into financial and management consultancy and project management roles where she discovered her passion for training.

A qualified Personal Performance Coach and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, Lynn loves using our learner-centred delivery methodology to bring practical skills to life. She enjoys delivering finance and accounting training, as well as leadership, communications skills and project management techniques. Her experience as a trainer for the Armed Forces Career Transition Workshops makes her the perfect trainer for our military participants, too!

Vicky started her career working in financial services, latterly as an auditor with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which took her from London to Singapore and Australia. A chartered accountant by qualification, Vicky soon realised she enjoyed training more than the actual accounting!

Vicky has designed and delivered many training programmes, from helping managers to understand the basics of finance, to communication and leadership, customer service and soft skills. Facilitating is at the very heart of her sessions – getting people talking and sharing their experiences and practical skills.

With broad experience drawn from 24 years in the Army and 12 years as a Chief Executive, Claire delivers training, coaching and mentoring focused on developing strategy, people and teams.

Claire loves supporting people to become a better version of themselves and believes her  mission is to help others to grow, feel resiient and fulfilled, no matter what life throws at them.